Chapter 340: Harvesting Robot

Chapter 340: Chapter 340: Harvesting Robot

She propped her chin on her hand, looking at the row of dejected-looking men across from her.

"You all... seem pretty tired?" Lily Hart asked hesitantly.

Her words were like asking, "You guys can’t handle it?"

Leo Colby’s expression darkened. He chose his words carefully. "Physically, we’re not tired. We’re all superpower users, after all. It’s more of a mental exhaustion."

Cynthia Whittaker nodded in sympathy. "Yes, yes, yes, mental exhaustion, that’s exactly it! Leo is spot on. Most of the time, it’s pretty fun, but when you run into certain customers who are impossible to communicate with, you just want to punch them to death!"

Owen Warren silently raised his hand. "Can I punch them to death too?"

Lily Hart shot him a look. "No, you can’t! Calm down!"

"Hmph!" Owen Warren snorted heavily. Sometimes, those customers were just so annoying. He’d tell them their time was up, but they’d just refuse to leave.

He didn’t dare get physical, afraid he’d lose control and kill them. But mostly, he was afraid of making Lily Hart angry.

Seth spoke up as well. "I’m doing okay, actually. The factory upgraded again today. It can produce five thousand meal boxes a day now, and the clothing assembly line has changed too."

Lily Hart’s eyes lit up. "That’s great news!"

Seeing her happy, Seth smiled too. "Yeah, it is. More people can get ready-to-eat meals now! I also wanted to ask if I could lower the price of the meal boxes."

"Of course. It’s your factory, you’re the boss. As long as you don’t think you’ll lose money," Lily Hart agreed readily.

Seth nodded. ’199 should be good then,’ he thought, ’two Crystal Cores.’

He’d mainly been looking at the prices for the hot pot restaurant and the breakfast shop, and neither was very expensive. At the breakfast shop, you could even eat your fill for a single Crystal Core.

’Why would anyone spend three Crystal Cores on a meal box?’

Lily Hart returned to the issue Leo Colby and Cynthia Whittaker were having. She suggested, "If it’s really that bad, just blacklist the person. Or see if there are any robots for sale and buy one."

"You can program it with answers to common questions. If they have more problems, just tell them to ask the robot."

The eyes of Leo Colby, Cynthia Whittaker, and Owen Warren all lit up.

"Great idea. The hotel has robots too, but they can only do odd jobs, like delivering towels and showing guests to their rooms," Leo Colby agreed.

"Exactly! I need a Q&A robot too, or I’m going to be annoyed to death by them!" Owen Warren’s brow was furrowed with impatience.

"Mhm! I’ll look right now!" Cynthia Whittaker said, immediately lowering her head to look at her Light Brain with swift efficiency.

Lily Hart mentally patted herself on the back for her cleverness. "And if you get anyone who’s deliberately looking for trouble—you know, playing dumb—just kick them out."

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Owen Warren open his mouth. She knew what he was going to say without even thinking and quickly stopped him. "Don’t solve problems with violence!"

Owen Warren huffed and dropped the idea. ’Humans are just too soft-hearted,’ he thought.

In his opinion, anyone he didn’t like the look of should be thrown out and fed to his little zombie brothers.

Stan Sterling silently raised his hand. "We’ve been changing bases so much recently, I’ve been doing all the harvesting in the vegetable garden by myself..." He pouted slightly, looking a little pitiful.

’Boss Hart, save me~ I can’t do it anymore~’

The daily mad rush for fruits and vegetables had never stopped; it had become a source of spiritual support for many, especially for those in the bases Lily Hart hadn’t visited yet.

They were relying on this stuff to stay alive.

The daily harvest was a huge undertaking, so Lily Hart and Stan Sterling had found a few reliable and honest survivors outside Central Command.

They helped with the harvesting, getting paid in Crystal Cores daily and sometimes even receiving some fruit as a bonus.

But with the recent, constant base changes, Stan Sterling was in unfamiliar territory and hadn’t found any part-timers, so he’d been doing it all by himself from morning till night.

After all, everyone was busy.

Lily Hart looked at Stan Sterling for a moment. She seemed to be spacing out, but she was actually thinking.

She was lost in thought for a bit too long. Everyone’s gaze gathered on her, and Stan Sterling started to feel a little uncomfortable under the scrutiny, shifting slightly as if by accident.

Suddenly, Lily Hart snapped her fingers. "That’s it! I’ll buy a harvesting robot! There’s got to be something like that!"

’In a future world, this kind of thing should be common. Otherwise, relying entirely on manual labor would be too exhausting.’

Seeing this, Frost Shaw inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief. He’d thought Boss Hart had been captivated by the man’s looks, her eyes glued on him, unwilling to look away.

Lily Hart searched for keywords on her Light Brain. Stan Sterling leaned over to look with her, but the back of the sofa was still between them.

From a certain angle, it looked as if Stan Sterling was embracing Lily Hart from behind while they whispered about something, which made certain people inexplicably annoyed.

This was especially obvious with Frost Shaw and Roman Rowe. Their eyes looked like they wanted to turn into giant hands and shove Stan Sterling far, far away.

Seth and Owen Warren were also secretly annoyed, both of them staring daggers at the back of Stan Sterling’s head.

Stan Sterling felt waves of cold wash over him but couldn’t tell where they were coming from.

The two of them discussed for quite a while before finally choosing a cheap and effective harvesting robot, euphemistically described as "meticulous, doesn’t miss a single fruit."

In reality, it was just slow, but it only cost two Crystal Cores a day~

The problems of Stan Sterling, Cynthia Whittaker, Leo Colby, Owen Warren, and Frost Shaw were all solved.

Lily Hart looked at Roman Rowe. This guy didn’t seem to have any problems to solve. She had already checked in at the clinic today, and there were none for now.

Roman Rowe was the only one in the room grinning like a happy-go-lucky fool.

’That’s good, too. It’s good to be carefree.’

With everyone’s problems solved, they all went back to their respective shops to continue working.

Everyone was in a much better mood than when they arrived. Lily Hart also breathed a sigh of relief, feeling reassured.

After sitting in the RV for a while, Lily Hart got restless. She casually stuffed a banana into her pocket, grabbed an apple, and headed out.

Munching on the apple, she walked around the back of the hotel and arrived at Stan Sterling’s little vegetable patch.

It could no longer be called a "little" vegetable patch. After several upgrades, its area had reached 10 square meters.

The upgrades for the other shops followed a pattern, like earning a certain number of points or achieving a specific goal.

But the vegetable patch was a bit unpredictable; you never knew when it would suddenly upgrade.

When Lily Hart arrived at the patch, Stan Sterling was testing out the harvesting robot.

It was called a robot, but it actually looked like a giant hand, or maybe a large excavator.

The whole thing was shaped like the number "7" stuck in the ground, only it had several joints that could extend, retract, and transform.

Stan Sterling was calibrating it. The end could split apart to reveal tools like scissors, clamps, and a basket.

Once it was set, Stan Sterling pressed the start button.

The machine suddenly whirred to life. The vertical part stuck in the ground was for stability.

The horizontal part on top moved slowly but surely toward the nearest peach tree to begin harvesting.

It kept getting longer and longer. The end split, revealing two tools: a pair of scissors and a basket.

When it reached a peach, the scissors extended again, snipped it off, and even thoughtfully left a bit of the stem.

The peach was caught by the basket. After picking this one, the arm moved on to the next.

Lily Hart took a couple of steps forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Stan Sterling, and together they looked up at the robotic arm at work.

"This machine isn’t bad at all~" Lily Hart praised sincerely. At least Stan Sterling could finally get some rest.